Apparently time flies when you're having fun!

I can't say that the last few weeks have been fun, but the time has truly flown...
I have been creating a few bits and bobs over the past month and this morning I popped to the scrapstore while Danny was at pre-school and stocked up on fabric that I have no-where to store... so I had better get on and make it into something I suppose! lol

When I was in production line mode with dogs I made a red white and blue one... so I would like you to meet Jack the dog!

I then found a pattern for a teddy bear that I thought I would give a go... he is very popular with everyone at the village cafe... where most of my creations get an airing...

The cake is an attempt at a mince pie but I am currently at a loss what to do with it next...

I started this chocolate coloured teddy bear which was a much chunkier wool and I used a slightly larger hook... however when I got to his feet I ran out of wool.... so I unpicked his legs and decided to start with a red wool of a similar weight and make his feet have boots and then finish the top of his legs with the brown.... however he's not been very well received (not like the white one) should I make him a jacket? or a hat or something...?

I was given a odd ball of sock wool... so I thought I would granny square it to see what it would look like.... I quite like the effect, its fairly delicate and fine but sturdy enough to be a scarf or cushion cover.... not sure what it will end up as... ;

I have been given over the past few months a vast array of odds and ends of wool, and I really can't store much more.... so I am starting to make granny squares and sew them together... in a bid to put them to good use...

and this is some of the fabric from the scrapstore... its quite heavy fabric more like upholstery weight but I think it will lend itself well to making some fabric boxes and Christmas stockings...

I will post again tomorrow as I must dash now... I have a few creations to finish as they need to be boxed up and sent out and I have some pictures to share with you of some lovely things that Sarah from The Blueberry patch sent me in return for a dog that I posted to her today...

I can't believe its only 5 weeks and 4 days till Christmas...
I have so much to do some stuff related to me and I still have stuff relating to the PTA to do and 2 signs to paint for a lady in the village who is opening a farm shop....

goodness me I could do with another pair of hands! lol

take care
seeya again tomorrow
Alex
x

Halloween is not far away ....

....and I am not at all ready!

However I am feeling a little more ghostly and a little batty thanks to Lisa Ridgeon who posted me 2 of her lovely ghosts that I bought from her....

However she's such a lovely lady she popped in a little batty broach and a bar of M & S Marzipan and a pack of chocolate lollies for the kids...


and whenever I get a parcel from Lisa she adds a beautiful origami bird and this time I received a big one and a little one they are beautiful too... I think I am going to save them and with a little piece of added thread I will hang them on my Christmas tree...

Thank you so much Lisa and I am tempted by your felt gingerbread men too! not to mention the Christmas puddings..... you are such a clever crafter!

take care
everyone
hugs
Alex
x

It got me....

Hi everyone, Sorry that I dropped off the planet there for a while.... as expected I came down with Danny's bug and it was a whopper...!

Not this weekend gone but the weekend before I woke in the early hours of Saturday with horrendous chest pains.... with bleary eyes I went down stairs and pondered what to do, I wandered, I sat, I lay down and I got up again... I did not know what to do with myself... 2 hours later I was hugging the toilet like my life depended on it and at 7am I wandered back upstairs kicked Mr P out of bed and crawled in leaving Mr P to look after the children all weekend as I curled up in bed and waited for the grim reaper to drag me away because I really felt that bad...

by Monday I was up but not good, in the end Danny went to mums for the day and I curled up on the settee, Mr P got home and I went to bed again.... and this is how it went on all week

This weekend just gone was a little more normal, I am still not fully back on my food and I am feeling like my head is stuffed full of toy wadding and its tricky to concentrate but every day I feel a little more normal

but if I am still feeling fuzzy by the weekend I think I will take a trip to the doctors and get a check up, just to be on the safe side

Upside of being wiped out:
Mr P and Danny have really gotten to know each other, I have been very silly and far to accommodating and I have always done bedtime, bath time, meals and everything and now Danny looks forward to and asks that daddy puts him to bed... I know its only a little thing but to not have to do the bedtime thing every night is something I am not giving up its such a relief to have someone else to help...

Downside:
I was tooo ill to even crochet!
arghhhhh!
I have however started with new vim and vigour and a polar bear is almost complete, alas I need a cunning plan to finish his ears as I have run out of silver wool... so I will sit and ponder the solution this evening... once complete I will share

I am also behind with my letter swap so I have emailed my lovely partner Molly to apologise and I also have a parcel to post to Nicola and another parcel for Sarah so I promise everyone I will be playing catch up all week and let you know as soon as I have posted your items.

Well I had better feed the kidliewinks and I will post something far more interesting next time...

take care
Alex
x

Yucky!

I feel quite yucky at the moment,

I am not sure if its because Danny is currently unwell and spent yesterday being sick or if I am just overtired and worn out still from trying to do too much

I have managed to step down from the PTA

yay!

So surely I should be full of beans, but my beans are not jumping

I am chatting via email to a lovely ex Clare's school boy and I am getting an idea of what the boys uniforms were like and how they used the house as a school and I have also contacted the archives at the local council and a lovely man called Joseph is helping me out

its exciting to gather information and visualise how life must have been at the school back in the day's that Nanny and Grandpa lived and worked there but I am thinking that all this info should be collected together and I think kept safe for a time when my own children wonder what their Great Nanny and Grandpa use to do when they were in their 60's... So I will stop boring you all to death with my research and histories, after all they are the lives and histories of other people that I do not have the right to publish without a second thought to their feelings or their families feelings

Anyhow... I must apologise for not popping by to all my bloggy friends posts as often as I should and I have swaps to get on with and parcels to post to good friends, I have just crocheted 2 pairs of slippers the first were obviously for myself as my recently purchased Uggs have not arrived and I believe they are being held by customs... so goodness knows if I will ever receive them.

Now the thing that ticks me off about my Ugg purchase was that I purchased them from an Ugg website that calls itself "UK - Uggs" therefore giving you the impression that they send the goods from the UK, but alas no... it would appear that they are sent from China.
I have no idea if the reason for the hold up is my parcel or another parcel within the shipment so I have no idea if my goods will arrive or not... hence the cold feet! :(

now I know a lot of people hate Uggs and I promise you I am no model with skinny legs and silly furry boots on the ends of them, my last pair of Uggs were worn non stop for 2 years ( well obviously I took them off when I went to bed!... well... apart from a couple of occasions when I annoyed Mr P ;D ) anyway they are so comfortable and warm and cosy and I am really sad that I might not get my warm feet this year.... and I will not be ordering anymore as they are not the cheapest things in the world, so I will have to wait and see if the customs peeps send them on to me or whether I am going to be a fair lump of money out of pocket and one step closer to not shopping online because of the uncertainty of waiting for something to turn up in the post.

Danny has finally fallen asleep and I am feeling a little washed out, mind you I slept on a mattress on his bedroom floor last night and he was very restless in the night, he almost fell on top of me a couple times but luckily I caught him just in time... its almost like I slept with some of my senses still tuned in to him... but he has a little colour in his cheeks today and has eaten a few bits and is drinking little and often, so I hope (fingers crossed) that he is on the mend

I was lucky with the weather yesterday too as I managed to wash bed clothes and towels and get them dry all in the same day... today is quite a grey chilly day so I might be cleaning out the fire later and getting it ready for lighting when Jamie comes in from school.

Well I had better go and I promise to show you some creations soon... I really need to get back to basics and share my latest projects...

take care
hugs
Alex
x

Welcome to Brymton D'evercy....

.... this is a brief trip around one of the most beautiful Country Houses I have ever visited this is the front porch... so wipe your feet and shake of the rain

and warm yourself by the fire in the hall

Lets move on and as I look over my shoulder what a beautiful site as we leave the front hall

goodness me.... the stairs are beautiful

Lets pop on up and head for the servants quarters where the rooms have been made ready for our arrival

What a beautiful room
I wonder what memories these walls could tell...

back downstairs and lets head for the sitting room...

when my Great Uncle was estate carpenter this was known as the blue room and when Clares boys school occupied the House it was the Masters dining room and my nanny Tucker would serve their meals in here

I learnt during my stay that this room is in a Rococo style, with the shells and natural forms... or was it Baroque...

beautiful wood carvings possibly by Grinling Gibbons
now lets head through the panelled doors to the sitting room
look at that fire...

as we head through the next room which is the oak panelled library where Susan Ashman has hung the most exquisite Gainsborough silk curtains ( I did take a photo but it was not very clear) we went through another door to the candle lit dining room and enjoyed a beautiful family meal of poached salmon and all the trimmings

back out into the hallway, can you see the door to the front hall in the distance?

lets pop into the dinning room, right behind me is the door to nanny's kitchen where she prepared all the meals for the school, and just to the left of the large fireplace you can see the bread oven... mum says that the boys kept their own jams and toppings for their toast in here... each with their names written on them...
We ate our lunch in here on the first day and in the morning we had a splendid full English breakfast

the door out into the garden is just around the corner and I think these are the windows to Nanny and Grandpa's flat... its now part of the bridal suite...
(I could be wrong though, mum or Auntie B will put me right)

Moving on around the end of the house we can see the front aspect in all its glory....

Just to the Left you can see the Dower house, this was built to be the home of the mother when the son got married and his new wife moved in.... but as it one of the oldest parts of the house along with the front hall I think it was back in the days of the D'evercy family

Just behind the Dowery house is St Andrews Church
and I believe the lace on the altar was placed there by my nanny and that it was made by my great great grandmother on my grandpa's side...
Auntie B will hopefully be able to give me some info on this

Its a beautiful little church, and my 3 brothers and I were christened here
and my middle brothers 3 children were christened here too

Lets head out beyond the lake now

and for a wider view of the back of the house

well I hope you have enjoyed our stroll around the house and my visit and learning about the historical architecture and interior design from Susan and Lindy has whetted my appetite to be more aware of the beautiful houses all around me in my own County and neighbouring Dorset. I have already made a long list of all the places that I intend to visit

I cannot thank Susan enough for that first contact that she made with me through my blog and I look forward to visiting many more times...
Earlier this year I was contacted by an ex Clares Boys school pupil and I have dropped him a line to let him know whats happening at Brympton and he has already gifted to me the names of the masters and will in the future share some more school time memories, I am so pleased to be able to act as the keeper of memories for a time which has so much relevance to my Nanny and Grandpa's lives

If any of you have memories of Brympton I would be very pleased to hear from you and feel free to drop me a line at
pinkfeatherparadiseatlivedotcodotuk

I had a lovely time with 2 other blogger's so why not pop over to visit Jane and Joanne to see their photos of our visit

Finally many thanks to the lovely family now living at the house for being so friendly and warm and making us feel so very at ease in their beautiful home

big hugs to everyone
take care
Alex
x

Will the moon rockets effect the earth?

Do they care?

Why did I hear nothing about this till it had happened?

Shouldn't the people of the Earth have a say in this?

When we send rockets to other planets are we going to blast them too?

what makes us rulers of the universe and will we in fact make the first aggressive move towards another life form starting a war the planet will not survive?

I know this is perhaps getting a little far fetched but really who the hell do we think we are?

We have already rapped and pillaged the planet we call home and rely on for our very existence but I pray we never find another habitable planet we do not deserve to be given a second chance...


the people in charge of each warring faction are too stupid to stop fighting over who owns what to realise it is a chance to start fresh...

Light a candle and pray there is no water on the moon...

Alex
x

TLBG Moresbag post....Better late than never!

Sorry I am soooo late with my post, Wednesday night I was worn out and then I wanted to tell you about someone who's blog I have followed since early days as she makes Moresbags, so I wanted to be sure Josie didn't mind me showing you her fantastic bags...
The first time I ever heard about Moresbags was from Josie on her blog Sykesssillysite and to date she has made 31 bags I believe from what ever she can lay her hands on, it would appear that Josie has been very busy the number is in fact 81!

The Moresbags concept is a really simple and yet effective idea and if I had a space to use my sewing machine I would join the ranks of Mores guys and gals but alas I have no table to work on... however I do have a hook and loads of yarn
with this in mind if I was to create string type shopping bags would people use them as much as a Moresbag?

I will have to make some and start giving them away... mind you I give everything away so there will be no change there! lol ;D

well I had better get on and I will let you know how I got on on my 2 day break at Brympton D'evercy....

Take care
Alex
x

2 days away, I am so excited!

Goodness me I have been so busy, and I have been given so many wonderful things by some lovely wonderful people....

I believe in a good deed being re payed later in life and the balance of both sides of the coin... I had a pretty poor time of it at the beginning of the school term and it was a real struggle but it paid off in the end and Jamie got a place on the school bus...

since then I have been scrabbling back some control over my life I am standing down from the PTA on Thursday and I even managed to say no to a request to chair the Pre-School committee... ( I am not usually good at saying no! ;D) and I have been asked to start a craft club at our village hall, something like a knit and natter but you can bring any kind of craft you like... I have also said no to running it but that I am happy to go along and teach people to crochet if they would like to....


I then exchanged a few emails with a lovely lady called Susan Ashman and I arranged to pop down to Brympton D'evercy House near Odcombe

where she is working at restoring the interior of the country house which is currently being used for weddings and will be the venue for residential courses


Mum, Danny and I had a wonderful morning looking around the house and mum told Susan what each room use to look like and who it was used by back in the 1960's when my Nanny and Grandpa Tucker where housekeeper and caretaker when it was a boys school... Mum had also found photocopied receipts that dated back to the 18o7 and paperwork from when my Great grandfather on my dad's side was a Carpenter for Sir Clive Ponsonby Fane


plus a very interesting letter my great uncle had written to Charles Ponsonby Fane telling of his memories of when he was a carpenter with his father at the estate



My brothers use to play in the house and the whole family use to spend Christmas's there as Nanny and Grandpa had a flat in one of the wings, it was amazing to think that my nanny use to cook for all the boys in that very kitchen where they now prepare food for functions and weddings

Well Susan will be running 2 day residential courses teaching interior and exterior design from Medieval to present day, using hte house as a visual aid every month after Christmas and she has asked me to be an assistant (nothing grand but with my family connection and fabric design background I might be helpful to have around, I hope! :D), I am stunned and so very pleased only the week before Mr P and I had been chatting about what we wanted to do when we were about to leave school and I wanted to get a job working as an interior designer... Mr P wanted to be a farmer... but our respective parents had other ideas and I went to art college studying surface pattern design and Mr P started working as an electronic apprentice...

So it would appear that fate has given me the chance to redirect my life and I am so pleased to have been given the chance to work in a place that my grandparents loved living and working in

Perhaps fate will also assist Mr P sometime in the future.... mind you he will need to do something to change his direction as if I hadn't started a blog I would never have gotten to know Susan. Last week she rang and invited me to a tester/taster 2 day residential on Tuesday, my initial reaction was "wow, yes definitely but I won't stay because of the children...." then after I had hung up I thought " I am not indispensable and I am sure Jamie who is 11 will be fine and Danny who's 3 will be with mum on Tuesday and Wednesday so staying the night in between won't hurt... "

but I still felt so guilty that I was considering doing something just for me... I won't lie I did ask Mr P if it would be okay, I think I needed someone to give me permission to abandon my parenting duties for 2 days...

So after I received permission and I ummed and ahhhed for about 2 minutes I decided that everything happens for a reason and I emailed Susan to accept the invitation to stay and now I am so very excited

I have to go and find my suitcase and the wash bag lovely Nicola sent me in a swap and work out what to wear and get some batteries for my camera...

the anticipation of a night without having to put Danny to bed and all the other rituals of being a mum, cook and houskeeper will be left in other peoples capable hands for just one night .. it feels like I have won the lottery!

Other thoughtful gifts I have received this week were from 2 lovely ladies at the village cafe on Thursday, one gave me a pattern book for crocheted socks, and I have been looking for one of these for months and then another lady gave me a bag full of wool... I seem to be receiving so many thoughtful gifts of late

So I must apologise for my lack of popping by and I promise to catch up with you all at the end of the week but now I am off to dig out a suitcase and get myself packed and ready for my 2 day break, even if its dull and drizzly the sun will be shining because for once in my life I am grabbing hold of an opportunity of a lifetime and living for the moment and its exhilarating

hugs to you all
take care
Alex
x

What a weekend

What a busy weekend but how satisfying to accomplish so much and have a tidier happier home at the end of it.... After the last 3 weeks of driving 52 miles a day doing the school runs costing us nearly £40 a week I was ready to drop on Friday... luckily Mr P has been able to pick up Jamie from school at 3:30pm so I get an afternoon off...
Friday morning while Danny was at pre-school the sky man came and fitted our sky dish and we are now flicking through more channels than can be healthy but as we never go out socialising and Mr P missed Overhaulin and Mythbusters I caved in and let him have sky again...

Saturday morning saw a hive of activity cleaning and tidying the postman delivered Jamie's bus pass so I no longer have to drive her 44 miles a day to school ... to say I am pleased and relieved would be an understatement, Jamie's friend from school came over and they started designing their fancy dress costumes for an 8 mile sponsored walk they are doing at school on Wednesday... needless to say I dug out some transfer paper and they printed designs off the computer which I then fumbled my way through ironing onto a white t-shirt... Jamie's friend took hers home for her mum to do... Jamie then spent the afternoon at her friends house... we dropped Danny at mums and headed off to the garden of an elderly family friend and mowed, pruned and tidied her garden.... after a quick coffee we loaded Mr P's van and he headed for the recycling center and I headed for the electrical store....
it had been decided that we really could do with a freezer as I was at a complete loss as to what to do with all my apples so I quickly chose a under counter freezer and I also bought a combination microwave oven

Mr P headed home with new electrical bits and I zipped off to mums to collect Danny and get home by 6:30pm as Jamie would be home at 7pm...

Now if I can get my head around all the new technology (obviously a freezer is fairly simple) I will hopefully be able to simplify meal times and still be able to watch that programme I would have missed while preparing it... if I can get it off the cartoon network and Disney channel for 2 minutes! ;D

Sunday was slightly less manic... only slightly though... in a bid to get a little more storage space in the kitchen I rescued a pine shelving unit from the garage and with Danny and Jamie bundled into the car I headed for the DIY store... we bought undercoat and white gloss and some magnetic blackboard paint (more about this another day)
Of course we had to have ice cream before we came home and then I returned to undercoat the shelves... I have managed one coat of gloss before Mother and father in Law arrived for afternoon tea... Then it was home work done, tea then showers and baths and uniform and school bags all ready... and

phew....

So off I pop to tidy the bombsite that is my horrid little bathroom and I find a friend.... where he came from after all the activity I do not know but if Jamie knew she was not alone in the bathroom when she showered I believe the screams would have been audible on Mars...

Jamie does not do spiders.... especially big ones

So I can only assume that frosts will soon be upon us and the spiders and mice will be heading somewhere warmer and so long as its not my house I am happy!

I have been quite low the past few weeks, tired and very fed up with my lot but today as I drove to pre-school with Danny I listened to him singing in the back of the car never has a rendition of "12345 once I caught a fish alive" sounded so sweet from a 3 year old and I realised that everything around me looked somehow brighter and clearer... perhaps my mind and my soul are restoring themselves but to say I was considering asking the doctor for medication to help me cope I think I might be okay now though... I still feel fuzzy and spaced out but I think I may be cresting the wave and rising from the depth of the swell... the immediate future feels less worrying so on that note I had better get on and collect Danny from pre-school and after we have had lunch I will give that shelf another coat of paint....

take care everyone
thanks for popping by!

x Alex

Edited 21/09/09 at 1:20pm
Change of plans... while the sun is shining we are off to the shop to get an ice cream and then going to the swings and slides for a play and a picnic... its suppose to rain tomorrow I can paint shelves then... live for the moment and all that!

big hugs!
A

What a Beautiful September day,
I bought some pears from Kathryn at the village cafe and I am tempted to make a pear and apple crumble... the apples are from my tree at the bottom of the garden...

This year has been a good year for apples

Still a few apples left...

and the sky is so perfectly blue...

We shifted a ton and a half of concrete the weekend before last from this small area of our long narrow garden... we have put down Cotswold chippings as the soil underneath is very clay and brick filled...
a friend of ours thought it was like a garden of rest...
and as that's what I need I think it will do just fine...
the shadow is cast by a large horrible asbestos garage that is on the list of things to be removed but as its full of motorbikes, tools and some of my stuff too I think it will be a little way down the list...
I estimate we have another 5 tons at least of concrete to shift...

We looked into buying wood to make a planter but while we were at our local farmers supplies store buying a new fence panel and posts (Mole Valley farmers) we suddenly realised that the cattle troughs were cheaper than actually buying the wood... so we opted for one of those...
now I know that galvanising is a really nasty process using horrible chemicals but it will last a good long while and I need raised containers as acid pants (more commonly known as Smudge the dog) takes great pleasure in peeing on anything and everything killing it dead... he is better than any weed killer I know! trouble is he doesn't differentiate between my herbs and the weeds...

Weekend Work to come...

We desperately need to replace the bathroom, and as we are currently without a boiler the kitchen needs a rejig to fit in an on demand water heater... as we don't have central heating we don't need a big boiler just enough to do the washing up and wash hands and faces... The bath will need to be ripped out and a shower put in its place... so that our teeny tiny bathroom at least feels a little bigger.... now all we need is the nerve to take the plunge and do something... Mr P is a "rip it all out and buy new" kinda guy...
but I am a "well there's nothing wrong with the ceramic hob so why do we need a new one!" kinda gal!

its a little tricky like that... I use to be a "wow... get a new one coz its all sparkly and nice!" but I do so worry about our wastefulness... and to think back at what our parents and grandparents had and how we don't realise how lucky we are... it a predicament indeed... I am sure we will compromise and anything with a little life left in it will be offered to Furnicare or the local second hand furniture shop...

Well I had better put the kettle on and do some washing up... my only means of heating water at he moment... its like camping in my own home..

and there may be a light at the end of the tunnel regarding Jamie's school bus, Somerset County Council seem to think there is an empty seat on the bus and I have posted back the forms they sent me... so keep everything crossed that it isn't a data entry mistake on the computer...

Danny had a fall at pre-school and cut his head on the concrete in the play area, he seems fine though

The Kitten is due to go to the Vets on Monday to have her stitch removed...(we had her spayed) which will be good as she's driving me nuts with the lampshade on her head.... mind you I raced down the garden to find her in the Guinea pigs run and the only thing stopping her from killing the guinea pig was the cone on her head... as she couldn't quite get through the gap... phew that was close!

Mum is waiting for an appointment to have more skin cut from her arm as a mole she had removed was malignant... they say that they have gotten it all but they still want to take some more... this will mean that the hole will be too big to just sew up and she will probably require a skin graft... she's worried about it.. I can tell... but as usual is putting a brave face on it all..

I have posted the giveaway parcels today and have an order for a Regis dog from a lady at the village cafe...


I am not sure how much to charge her though... I suppose £4 would be fine as its enough for me to buy another ball of wool to make another one... so long as my habit for yarn covers its costs I am happy.. :D

T.L.B.G Wednesday

We have been asked to write about and share ideas and thoughts on green cleaning....

To be honest this is my weakest area as I don't really buy green products, so I have been researching what I could do to be greener....

First I thought I would have a look and see what Mrs Beeton had to say about the subject...
(Considering she died when she was 28 she seems to know an awful lot about running a Victorian house)

(click on images to enlarge)

1,112 pages of fascinating information about everything and anything to do with running a Victorian house, and over 900 pages of recipes

but I am unsure of the modern validity of some of the ingredients so I sought a more up to date information and popped over to visit Rhonda Jeans blog Down---to---earth

now this lady has an amazing list of home made cleaning products that I will be giving a go...

Now I know that I am really naughty for not being greener in my cleaning products and I know its something I need to rectify but I am starting out on this road to kinder living and I hope you can forgive me for my lack of effort...

Sorry for the simple post but to be honest I am shattered, the 50 mile a day school runs are taking their toll, but fingers crossed a place may be available on the school bus after all... and Danny (in his mad dash to get the best bike, at pre-school) tripped and smacked his head into the concrete path, resulting in a trip to the doctors... he's seems fine though and I did put a plaster on the cuts as the oozing clear scabby stuff coming out was very gory looking...

I am posting the giveaway parcels tomorrow
and I have just taken delivery of my October Crochet World magazine so a happy evening will be had by me...
fingers crossed!

Take care
Alex
x